Key Senator Reveals Final Vote on Kavanaugh, Decides Whether or Not He'll Be a Supreme Court Justice

On Friday, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine voted to move the vote on the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the floor. However, that didn't mean that she'd vote to confirm him.

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Collins had said she would announce her final position on the Supreme Court nominee on Friday afternoon during a speech from the Senate Floor. That decision isn't dictated by her earlier vote.

When Collins took to the floor, she was initially unable to speak due to shouts from protestors in the gallery. She began by recognizing the dysfunctional nature of the nomination process, calling it more like a political campaign than a nomination process.

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She denounced the way that people opposed President Trump's nominee just based on him being nominated by Trump. She said that this process had reached "rock bottom."

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This is the fifth time that Collins has voted on a Supreme Court nominee. She listed the presidents—Bush, Obama, and Trump—whose nominees she has confirmed without bias.

After a lengthy speech explaining Kavanaugh's views and judicial record, Collins shifted to speaking about the allegations of sexual assault brought by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. However, she decided to stand with the presumption of innocence. She decided her allegations failed to meet the "more likely than not" standard.

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At the end of her speech, she announced that she will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. This is possibly a decisive vote on Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.

According to The Hill, if Collins had reversed her vote, it would not have been the first time she's changed her vote between the procedural and the final vote. Last year, Collins voted to put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' nomination up to a vote. However, she said she would not support her nomination.